colossus
Americannoun
plural
colossi, colossuses-
(initial capital letter) the legendary bronze statue of Helios at Rhodes.
-
any statue of gigantic size.
-
anything colossal, gigantic, or very powerful.
noun
Etymology
Origin of colossus
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin < Greek kolossós statue, image, presumably < a pre-Hellenic Mediterranean language
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After spending two decades molding Disney into a media colossus, Iger segued into a senior advisory role, which will run through December when he officially retires.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 18, 2026
Apple played a major role building Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing into the colossus of the chip industry by committing to make its latest iPhone chips in the company’s Taiwan plants.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 1, 2026
In September, Netflix, the streaming colossus behind fare like Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” and a sinking civilization’s “Poop Cruise,” will present a boxing rematch between 49-year-old Floyd Mayweather Jr. and 47-year-old Manny Pacquiao.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 26, 2026
Instead, it points to a quieter colossus: households.
From BBC • Feb. 19, 2026
They tell the story of the birth of science, of its infancy, and of its extraordinary transformation into the great colossus under whose shadow we all now live.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
